7th Circ. Doubtful Climate Fight Belongs In Federal Court

By Lauraann Wood

Seventh Circuit judges seemed skeptical Wednesday of Chevron and other oil giants' argument that a lower court incorrectly sent Chicago's climate deception claims back to state court, questioning whether they've cited the type of contractual government work and relationship that would otherwise keep the suit in federal court.

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Northern Trust VP Stole Millions From Elderly Client, Suits Say

By Emilie Ruscoe

An elderly banking heiress and her nephew have sued the Northern Trust Co., alleging the wealth management firm failed to safeguard their assets from a now-former vice president who helped himself to millions of dollars of their funds.

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Biogen Can't Escape Amended Antitrust Suit Over MS Drug

By Dorothy Atkins

Biogen Inc. must face health plans' claims that it bribed pharmacy benefit managers to stifle generics competition for its multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera, after an Illinois federal judge found Wednesday that the plans' latest amended complaint in their consolidated antitrust litigation corrects her prior concerns with the pleadings.

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Schools Want To Appeal Financial Aid-Fixing Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

The five private universities that have yet to settle with students over the alleged fixing of financial aid offerings are asking an Illinois federal court for permission to immediately appeal a ruling that sets the case up for trial.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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Analysis

Trade Secret Filings Hit Record High In 2025, Report Finds

By Ivan Moreno

Trade secret litigation reached an all-time high in 2025, with more than 1,500 federal cases filed for the first time ever, according to a new report by legal analytics firm Lex Machina, which also highlights trends about damages, the busiest courts and the law firms most frequently involved.

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7th Circ. Weighs 'Unprecedented' Clearview AI Privacy Deal

By Celeste Bott

The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday raised misgivings about a novel settlement ending multidistrict litigation over Clearview AI's collection of biometric data online, pressing an attorney for those objecting to the deal to offer alternatives they'd deem fair, given the risk of the company going bankrupt and class members receiving no payout at all.

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Wrong Standard Sunk Benesch Ex-Client's Suit, 7th Circ. Told

By Lauraann Wood

A former Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP client urged the Seventh Circuit on Wednesday to revive her malpractice suit claiming the firm botched her potential trade secrets theft case, arguing a lower court held her to too high a pleading standard in tossing her case.

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How FERC Is Shaping The Future Of Data Center Grid Use

Two recent orders from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission affecting the PJM Interconnection and Southwest Power Pool regions offer the first glimpse into how FERC will address the challenges of balancing resource adequacy, grid reliability and fair cost allocation for expansions to accommodate artificial intelligence-driven data centers, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

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What To Expect From Justices' 401(k) Ruling, DOL Rulemaking

The U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming ruling in Anderson v. Intel, addressing alternative assets in defined contribution plans, coupled with the U.S. Department of Labor's recently proposed regulation on fiduciary duties in selecting alternative investments, could alleviate the litigation risk that has impeded wider consideration of such investments, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

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And Now A Word From The Panel: MDL Year In Review

2025 was a roller coaster for the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, with the panel canceling one hearing session due to the absence of new MDL petitions, yet also issuing rulings on more new MDL petitions than in 2024 — making it clear that MDLs are still thriving, says Alan Rothman at Sidley Austin.

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Series

Judges On AI: How Judicial Use Informs Guardrails

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maritza Dominguez Braswell at the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado discusses why having a sense of how generative AI tools behave, where they add value, where they introduce risk and how they are reshaping the practice of law is key for today's judges.

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ICE Violated Nearly 100 Court Orders, Minn. Judge Says

By Rae Ann Varona

The Minnesota federal court's chief judge admonished U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday for violating nearly 100 court orders concerning the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota while another judge, on the same day, temporarily blocked ICE from unlawfully arresting and detaining refugees in the North Star State.

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Tobey Maguire Says He Rerouted Fee To Goldstein

By Jared Foretek

"Spider-Man" star Tobey Maguire told the jury Wednesday in Thomas Goldstein's tax fraud trial that he paid $500,000 for his legal services to another poker player the former SCOTUSblog founder owed money to, rather than Goldstein's law firm.

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Tom Goldstein Saga Could Go From Courtroom To Big Screen

By Rachel Rippetoe

As federal prosecutors are two weeks into detailing SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein's storied descent into the world of high-stakes poker during his tax fraud trial in Maryland, Hollywood producers are gearing up to tell the same story on-screen.

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Fla. Prosecutors' Detention Defense Met With Sanction Threat

By Adrian Cruz

The U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Gregory Kehoe, along with an assistant U.S. attorney have been threatened with sanctions by a federal judge for the methods their office used in defending the mandatory detention of noncitizens.

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Brief

Trump Announces Pick For New Assistant AG For Fraud Role

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday evening that he would be nominating Colin McDonald, associate deputy attorney general, for the newly created assistant attorney general for fraud role.

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USPTO Seeks 'Serious Sanctions' For Chinese Co.'s 19K Apps

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says the "most serious sanctions" are warranted against a China-based company for filing more than 19,000 trademark submissions using names of U.S.-licensed attorneys who did not review the applications, saying submissions were at times filed in 3-minute intervals "or less."

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Prosecutors Form New Group To Fight Federal Overreach

By Ryan Boysen

Several progressive prosecutors have launched a new group to hold accountable federal officials who "exceed their lawful authority," amid a growing backlash to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the recent killing of two protesters by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

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